Giada’s Oatmeal, Cranberry and Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Recently I had the most stressful day. It was one of those days you feel absolutely powerless and you are waiting, waiting and waiting. When that happens to me, I bake. I know, it is August and probably warm where you are but we are not getting the super-warm weather everyone else is.

I had seen Giada make these cookies and thought, Reg would LOVE these! Oatmeal cookies with chocolate and dried fruit? That would absolutely be up his alley so I got to work. 

Cream together 1 stick (half a cup) of room temperature butter with 1/2 cup of light brown sugar and 1/2 cup of regular white sugar for about a minute.

Add an egg and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract.

Whisk together 1 cup of flour, 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp fine sea salt. Beat into the butter mixture.

Add 2 cups of old fashioned oats.

Add 1 cup of dried cranberries. I did not have a whole cup so I chopped up some apricots and added golden raisins. Mix together.

Finish with 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chopped into chunks. To make life easier I just used chocolate chips instead. Fold in chocolate.

Giada says to use a four ounce ice cream scoop which is quite large to make six balls of cookie dough per baking sheet.

Flatten the top with a spoon. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 13-15 minutes until cookies are golden brown along the edges.

You are supposed to let them cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes before eating but my cookies were over-baked and a tad scorched on the bottom so I moved mine over to a cooling rack right away.

Thankfully, Reg LOVED these! Which made me very happy. It will also make granola kids very happy. This is one filling and hearty cookie. It is not my style though. They are very dry and a little too much of a foodie commitment. It felt more like a meal than a treat. The hint of cinnamon was nice and earthy but a little strong for me. I did love the combination of the dried fruit with the chocolate and next time, I will bring out the good dark chocolate when I make these.

The entire batch of cookies (12 large ones) only used one stick of butter and is filled with old fashioned oats so I recommend them to those trying to be a bit healthier with their baking. Keep an eye on them while they back though to make sure they do not get over-baked.

After baking these Reg came home with great news. I made tea and we enjoyed these together with smiles on our faces. Life was finally starting to feel back on track.

I think Reg would give these cookies five out of five wooden spoons. Me? I give them four out of five.